Sheffield Flood of 1864

The Sheffield Flood of 1864 remains the greatest civilian disaster of Victorian Britain, yet is relatively unknown outside the city.

On the night of 11 March 1864, the embankment of the Dale Dyke Dam collapsed and released 114 million cubic feet of water into the Loxley Valley.

The Chief Constable’s records show that 240 people were drowned, 100 buildings and 15 bridges were destroyed and around 4,000 houses were flooded.

The sources available at Sheffield Archives and Local Studies Library give a great level of detail about the flood itself, the inquiry that followed and the hardships of the ordinary people of Sheffield, trying to come to terms with the scale of the disaster.